"THRILLING. ... Up-end[s] the Apollo narrative entirely." --The
Times (London)
A "brilliantly observed" (Newsweek) and "endlessly fascinating" (WSJ)
rediscovery of the final Apollo moon landings, revealing why these
extraordinary yet overshadowed missions--distinguished by the use of the
revolutionary lunar roving vehicle--deserve to be celebrated as the
pinnacle of human adventure and exploration.
One of The Wall Street Journal's 10 Best Books of the Month
8:36 P.M. EST, December 12, 1972: Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and
Jack Schmitt braked to a stop alongside Nansen Crater, keenly aware that
they were far, far from home. They had flown nearly a quarter-million
miles to the man in the moon's left eye, landed at its edge, and then
driven five miles in to this desolate, boulder-strewn landscape. As they
gathered samples, they strode at the outermost edge of mankind's
travels. This place, this moment, marked the extreme of exploration for
a species born to wander.
A few feet away sat the machine that made the achievement possible: an
electric go-cart that folded like a business letter, weighed less than
eighty pounds in the moon's reduced gravity, and muscled its way up
mountains, around craters, and over undulating plains on America's last
three ventures to the lunar surface.
In the decades since, the exploits of the astronauts on those final
expeditions have dimmed in the shadow cast by the first moon landing.
But Apollo 11 was but a prelude to what came later: while Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin trod a sliver of flat lunar desert smaller than a
football field, Apollos 15, 16, and 17 each commanded a mountainous area
the size of Manhattan. All told, their crews traveled fifty-six miles,
and brought deep science and a far more swashbuckling style of
exploration to the moon. And they triumphed for one very American
reason: they drove.
In this fast-moving history of the rover and the adventures it ignited,
Earl Swift puts the reader alongside the men who dreamed of driving on
the moon and designed and built the vehicle, troubleshot its flaws, and
drove it on the moon's surface. Finally shining a deserved spotlight on
these overlooked characters and the missions they created, Across the
Airless Wilds is a celebration of human genius, perseverance, and
daring.
